Epi4Dogs

My 7 year old French bulldog has been diagnosed with epi and has gone from a healthy 32 pounds to 21 pounds in a little over a month. She’s been prescribed panakare plus tablets and we’ve been crushing them and incubating them for 20 minutes it’s been a few days now and still no good poops. We’ve been giving her the recommended intrinsic b-12 and that seems to have brought back some of the sassyness she use to have. For close to a month she would regurgitate after every meal and she would chug all the water she could also making her regurgitate. We have since tried to control her water intake while still not trying to restrict it. The past few days she’s been regurgitating quite a bit less than she had been earlier in the month, maybe only 1 small one yesterday. She was prescribed metronidazole for 14 days and I was looking through the forum last night and I saw everyone has a problem with that antibiotic but we’re already one week in and I think the metro maybe responsible for ending the regurgitation. I asked for tylosin when we were at the vet but he didn’t have any to give. Would it be wise to try and switch to tylosin or continue the metro until it’s done and try to rebuild with pre and probiotics after it’s all done? Also we’re giving tums and d3 because we couldn’t get calcium from the vet or any other vet in town and our little girl was really low on calcium and potassium and she spent a whole day getting fluids intravenously. Thanks for any advice you can give.

Poor Roo. I am so sorry you are going through this, but remember, EPI, though it may take some tweaking, is manageable. It is strongly recommended that you keep a journal of things you try along the way, and what the results were. This will really aid in your dog's recovery.

Can you ask your vet for a prescription for Tylosin Tartrate (Tylan)? It is available at Chewy.com, as long as it is prescribed. My feeling is, you will want to have it on hand for when your Metro runs out, anyway, whether you switch midstream or not. My maltipoo (IBD, but not EPI) took Metro before the word on it was out, and she started right back up with tummy issues when she went off it.

Keep checking back for one of the pros to respond, and WELCOME to you and Roo!---Pam & Tucker

Thanks for the response I’ll definitely get in contact with them about getting some tylosin for the future. Having this site has been really helping me cope with some of the fears we had. For about 2 months we had no idea what was going on and the lack of diagnosis really shook us. But now that we’ve had a positive diagnosis we’re ready to get on track. I’ll definitely start journaling what we use on her!
Thank you!

I agree with Pam, Call you vet and ask them if they could approve an order of Tylan for you. As soon as you get it, then switch off from the Metro to the Tylan....
here is the link to the Tylan.
https://www.chewy.com/tylan-soluble-powder/dp/173769

Regarding the low potassium and the fact that your dog had to receive IV fluids..... what you might want to do to really keep it hydrated is to give it unflavored Pedialyte.... this replenishes the body with minerals and electrolytes (potassium, etc)

Regarding the low calcium..when i home prepared food for my dog, i always made sure to give it good bone matter.... in which case, i purchased UPCO BONE MEAL for cats and dogs.....
https://www.amazon.com/Bone-Meal-Steame ... 1327&psc=1
and i used to mix this in with the food.....here is the link, but ask your vet first if this would be appropriate for the low calcium.

DId your vet say what might be causing the low calcium in your dog? I know they have special medications for this, but i am guessing if your dog needed specific medication for the low calcium, your vet would have prescribed it. The other thing that you can do is give your dog lots of yogurt (make sure it doesn't have any fake sweetners in it!!) for calcium... or what is even better than yogurt is actually Ricotta cheese ..... which dogs love

Yup I’ll definitely call to have them approve that prescription thank you for the link! I’ll also ask them about the bone meal they weren’t too sure why she was so low on calcium. Has anyone else had that issue? I kind of assumed it was the month of diarrhea and regurgitation that led to the dehydration and I’m hoping now that we know she has epi that she’ll be good from now on. And our vet said to go with the tums and he didn’t want us straying into any of the fun foods until she’s a little more comfortable holding everything down. She hates it though, she’s never had to eat dog food before because I made her dinner every night for the last 7 years. Thanks for the help!

see if she'll eat ricotta cheese or whole yogurt (just watch that the yogurt doesn't have to imitation sweetners) .
I hope her calcium levels come up. I am guessing that your vet will be rechecking it later to see if the levels have improved.

Once the enzymes take effect and of course once the ever present SID gets under better control.... she should be able to start keeping the food down. If they are vomiting or regurgitating, Its' usually the SID that triggers that.

However. just a FYI.....what is often used for regurg (acid reflux) ... in case this is what you are dealing with and if it doesn't get under control.......what is often given to EPI dogs is Omeprazole if needed. What they have discovered is that the secondary bile function if affected in EPI dogs.. But if your dog does have continued acid reflux symptoms, your vet will have to tell you how much omeprazole to give based on the dog's weight.

keep us posted!

Hi OlesIa,

Can you say more on the acid reflux topic. My EPI dog had a relapse after been diagnosed with EPI and was stable for 2 years.
No has hypersalivation ,especially at night, and keeps lying his stomach more. The vet is pretty sure it is acid reflux but he was on esomeprazole for 3 weeks, 1 week on famotidine and nothing changed. He swallows a lot when he is lying.
I read somewhere that 1 tsp of pumpkin pure helps but so far.. no change.

Good morning from the UK

Acid reflux was the bane of my Kara's life, she just couldnt deal with acids

https://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/di ... eal_reflux

this is interesting, might be as well to check if there is a hernia

omesoprazole can interfere with b12 absorption from foods but apparently not from supplements

Miroslava can you start a new post for yourself , just click on "new topic" and tell all


Jean